Question: can a solar flare effect anything on earth, if so what?

Jack Carlyle answered on 7 Nov 2015:

Solar activity can and does affect loads of things on Earth, but not just flares. Flares themselves release high-energy particles which can affect spacecraft and even the atmosphere, but flares are often accompanied by massive eruptions called coronal mass ejections, or CMEs. These are bundles of magnetic fields containing plasma (a sort of hot gas), and if they hit the magnetic field of the Earth, what’s known as a geomagnetic storm can happen. These can have dire effects on lots of things, from disrupting GPS signals (like the sat-navs in cars), causing fires in pipes, and making entire power grids crash! These are also what cause the beautiful northern lights, or aurora borealis.